Thursday, February 9, 2012

SHARING: What’s on your mind in Volunteer Management?

Here’s something a little different for my blog. An invitation to you. What would you like me to write about?

This idea came to me one night after I wrote a blog on Volunteer Management networking. And it was reinforced to me when I looked at which blog was the most popular and read blog on my blog website. A lot of people began reading my entry on networking and an awful lot of people were reading my “thank you speech for volunteers”. In my professional career I consider myself to have been successful. I have a track record to prove this. I fell into volunteer management, learnt the ropes in basics and have been learning ever since. 15 years later I am still enjoying volunteer management thoroughly. And I think this is the key to ones success. If you can absolutely love you job after 15 years then you must be doing something right! I have always been a “sharer”.

If I’ve leant something along the way I have always been keen to share it with those within my field. I have always been a keen fan of networking and mentoring. I have spent a lot of time sitting down with other volunteer managers and coordinators sharing my experience. I have shared a lot of my time over the years sharing tips or strategies. I have always found it hard to say no to a colleague seeking help or advice.

One of the people I continue to look up to is Jayne Cravens. Why? Jayne shares. Jayne’s blog is one of the best free resources in volunteerism and community engagement for knowledge advice and tips IMHO! Yes she is also a consultant and I recommend her to any organsiation that wants a true professionals approach to engaging volunteers in terms of management and social media! Jayne happens to live in 2022 by the way. So there are people out there who are great at sharing!

My own humble blog has been a wonderful eye opener since I started writing it 2 years ago. Close on 62,000 page views. 254 published posts!
But what would you like me to talk about? If you have a question I am happy to answer it with a blog. Whether it be “how to recruit’ or “how to interview a volunteer” to “how to effect change in my program” to “how to position myself as a volunteer manager” I am more than happy to consider your question for a blog post.

Why do I consider myself successful in Volunteer management? It’s simple really. It need not be about the books I have written (None!) It isn’t about the conferences I have presented at or the articles I have had published (there are a few). I consider myself successful because I have been in the sector for 15 years and still have a passion for what I do. I have built volunteer programs wherever I have worked and I have measured my success by the smiles and feedback I receive not the numbers of volunteers I have recruited (Though there has been many). You won’t get academic research here. You don’t get a guy who has travelled the world talking about his view on Volunteer management. You won’t get someone calling himself an expert. What you will get is someone talking your language. Someone who had had years of experience in Volunteer management but someone who is not restricted by “old thought”. You will get someone who is still keen to share their tips on Volunteer Management. You will get someone who is interested in your personal growth in the field. Why? I see it as volunteering my time if I can attempt to answer some of your questions.

All you need do is reply to this post or email the address on this website. I will endeavor to answer as many questions as I can. Over to you.

2 comments:

Thanks for the shout out, DJ! I get so much more quality networking done online than I do at most onsite "volunteer management" gatherings. What a shame that there are still so many volunteer managers that refuse to blog, Tweet, use Facebook, join OzVPM, etc.

Thanks for the comments Jayne! Someday Jayne..someday! Some years ago you were talking about social media and I was thinking "what is she talking about?" Someday it will just be second nature for most of us!

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This is my personal blog on matters pertaining to Volunteer Management,Volunteerism and sometimes life in general. It consists of my own opinions and does not represent the opinions of any other person, business or organization.

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Irish born, DJ Cronin commenced volunteering for organisations at the age of 15 and has been active in the volunteering sector for most of his life. DJ believes that volunteerism is a powerful movement for betterment and change in our society, and he is a passionate advocate for the sector of volunteer management as well as effective volunteer engagement and development.